Month: November 2016

People talk about going back to real values. Where do people want to go back to? robber baron capitalism and child labor? slavery? feudalism? I’m inclined to go back to hunter-gatherer times in some regards, perhaps making me the real reactionary. Let’s take the Haudenosaunee [Iroquois]. They relied both on agriculture and hunting and gathering but they are the group I am most familiar with.

They were matriarchal; a man came to the woman’s long house on marriage and went back to his group if divorced. Only men served on the governing counsel but the elder women chose the men, and removed them if they were not satisfied. Resources were shared; no one lived in poverty. All decisions were made considering its impact on the next seven generations, which would remove most of the energy choices we’ve made in the last 60 years.

The Haudenosaunee did not hit their children –they were appalled when they observed the Europeans beating their own young people–and the children were educated by all members of the group.

Less lovely aspects of their society existed but all in all I think I’ll take what they had.